An End to Manifestos

Tag Archives: malware

Once again the Internet is set to DEFCON level:OH SHIT due the latest ransomware, WannaCry. I’ll refrain from any further analysis of the malware, since it’s already been discussed ad nauseam by every major security vendor. But I will offer the following thoughts.

WTF?! Why is the industry still so bad at dealing with malware? This attack paralyzed organizations like the NHS and impacted carbon units (you know, those things who pay us) in almost 100 countries. But even as the Internet was melting down, organizations were still sluggish to test and apply this patch after it was released.

According to Brian Krebs, Microsoft released a patch for the vulnerability in March 2017, “…but organizations running older, unsupported versions of Windows (such as Windows XP) were unable to apply the update because Microsoft no longer supplies security patches for those versions of Windows.” Woah Nelly, ORGS ARE STILL RUNNING CRITICAL SYSTEMS ON WINDOWS XP?! That OS was released in 2001 and most people don’t even drive cars that old.

And what about all those NextGen security products that are supposed to address zero days? Where was that super-fantastic, heuristic, machine learning AI when we needed it?

The depressing thing about fighting malware is that the most effective solutions are the same as they were a decade ago:

Make sure you’re running an endpoint security product with updated signatures, formerly referred to as antivirus. Do these programs negatively impact system performance? Oh yeah. Are they foolproof? Hell no. But like a screen door, they filter out the majority of attacks.

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Another day, another vulnerability. This month the big non-event was Badlock, following the recent trend of using a splashy name to catch the media’s attention so they could whip the management meat puppets into a paranoid frenzy. Many in the security community seem unperturbed by this latest bug, because let’s face it, nothing can surprise us after the last couple of really grim years.

But then more Java and Adobe Flash bugs were announced, some new iOS attack using Wi-Fi and NTP that can brick a device, followed by an announcement from Apple that they’ve decided to kill QuickTime for Windows instead of fixing a couple of critical flaws. All of this is forcing me to admit the undeniable fact that trying to secure the endpoint is a waste of time. Even if you’re using a myriad of management tools, patching systems, vulnerability scanners, and DLP agents; you will fail, because you can never stay ahead of the game.

The endpoint must be seen for what it truly is: a limb to be isolated and severed from the healthy body of the enterprise at the first sign of gangrene. It’s a cootie-ridden device that while necessary for our users, must be isolated as much as possible from anything of value. A smelly turd to be flushed without remorse or hesitation. No matter what the user says, it is not valuable and nothing of value to the organization should ever be stored on it.

This doesn’t mean I’m advocating removing all endpoint protection or patching agents. But it’s time to get real and accept the fact that most of this corporate malware is incapable of delivering what the vendors promise. Moreover, most often these applications negatively impact system performance, which infuriates our users. But instead of addressing this issue, IT departments layer on more of this crapware on the endpoint, which only encourages users to find ways to disable it. One more security vulnerability for the organization. A dedicated attacker will figure out a way to bypass most of it anyway, so why do we bother to trust software that is often more harmful to business productivity than the malware we’re trying to block? We might as well give out “Etch A Sketches” instead of laptops.

I confess: I covet and hoard security tools. But I’m also frugal and impatient, so often look for something free and/or quick. And yes, that frequently means using an online, hosted service. Before the security-purists get their panties in a wad, I’d like to offer this disclaimer: you may mock me for taking shortcuts, but it’s not always about having the best tool, but the one that gets the job done.

Here’s a list that I frequently update. You’ll notice that sometimes I have the same tool in more than one section, but this is because it has multiple functions. If you know of others and would like to contribute or if you think the tool is outdated or bad, please let me know and I’ll adjust the list accordingly.

Many thanks to @grecs for his additions and helping me to organize it. Also to Lenny Zeltzer, author of the REMnux malware analysis and reverse engineering distro, who I’ve borrowed shamelessly from. You’ll find many of these tools and others on his own lists, so I encourage you to check his posts on this topic as well.

ISITPHISHING is a free service from Vade Retro Technology that tests URLs, brand names or subnets using an automatic website exploration engine which, based on the community feeds & data, qualifies the phishing content websites.

Email tools

Threat Intelligence and Other Miscellaneous Tools

ThreatPinch Lookup Creates informational tooltips when hovering oven an item of interest on any website. It helps speed up security investigations by automatically providing relevant information upon hovering over any IPv4 address, MD5 hash, SHA2 hash, and CVE title. It’s designed to be completely customizable and work with any rest API. Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Censys: A search engine that allows computer scientists to ask questions about the devices and networks that compose the Internet. Driven by Internet-wide scanning, Censys lets researchers find specific hosts and create aggregate reports on how devices, websites, and certificates are configured and deployed.

Detection Lab: collection of Packer and Vagrant scripts that allow you to quickly bring a Windows Active Directory online, complete with a collection of endpoint security tooling and logging best practices.

SIFT Workstation: a group of free open-source incident response and forensic tools designed to perform detailed digital forensic examinations in a variety of settings.